Midgar Hardcore
by axisprod
Summary: A day in the life of the disenfranchised and alienated youth of Midgar.


Note:First FFVII fanfic I wrote in fifteen years.  
Midgar seemed like a pretty awful place to live in, what if the city  
had a punk and anarchist scene?

**MIDGAR HARDCORE  
**

Deep in the dirty streets of Sector 5, the sounds of chanting, music on make shift instruments, and free food colored the usually depressing, polluted, and military littered streets.

This was a different day for the oppressed poor and homeless that populated the slums.

A neighborhood of residents in Sector 5 had organized a complete protest, a taking back of the streets of Midgar from the conglomerate ShinRa Inc, and it's brutal police state.

The Sector 5 group held meetings everyday, and welcomed anyone of the slums and other sectors to partake and discuss ways to protest the awful living situation of the slums.

The neighborhood organizers named themselves "Occupy Midgar," and showed solidarity to those all oppressed by ShinRa Inc.

The day of the massive march and protest in front of the main ShinRa building, thousands of slum-dwellers littered the streets, waving banners  
and picket signs.

Within the crowd, an 18-year-old young woman with a bright red Mohawk and dreadlocks, a black jacket, leopard print skirt, and fishnet stockings wandered through, overwhelmed.

This was her first time seeing a protest in Midgar.

"What's your name, kid?"

An Occupy Midgar organizer approached her.  
He was wearing a black bandana and hood around his face to mask his identity from the hidden cameras ShinRa had installed throughout the city to spy on it's citizens and catch any signs of civil disobedience.

"Oh…my name is…Elaine."

The young woman answered shyly.

Even though she considered herself a punk, she was still a little apprehensive towards strangers.

"Good to meet you, I'm Malle. Be careful, the crowd is getting bigger by the minute, ShinRa will probably deploy its militarized police soon and teargas us all. Be prepared."

Another masked girl next to Malle energetically joined into the conversation, "I heard rumors that ShinRa was thinking about deploying SOLDIER!"

A couple people in the crowd turned their attention towards the youth's conversation,  
some with expressions of fright twisting their faces.

"Why would ShinRa care that much about protestors?"

Malle asked calmly.

"This protest is huge! It's gaining more supporters globally by the minute! ShinRa must be getting worried about us now!"

The girl said triumphantly.

"If SOLDIER was deployed they would massacre us all. ShinRa can't afford to make themselves look THAT badly." Malle added.

"Let them bring SOLDIER!" The girl screamed towards the ShinRa building. "Our combined solidarity will make us immune to attacks from the state!"

Malle turned back towards Elaine as the hooded and masked girl ran back into the crowd of protestors.

"Some are so zealous that they cannot understand the reality of the situation." Malle said.

Elaine played with one of her bright red dreadlocks.

"Yeah, It would be terrible if SOLDIER was sent to kill us all…. but sometimes I don't think it's so far fetched. ShinRa is terrible and would do anything to cover shit up."

Malle nodded and handed Elaine a small slip of paper.

"You going to the show tonight?"

Elaine took the flyer and read the band names advertised on it.

"Lifestream Rejects, Midgar Street Rats, Hopeless Future, ShinRa Coffin, World of no Tomorrow. This looks awesome, but I've never heard of the venue, 7th Heaven?"

Elaine looked at Malle in confusion.

"7th heaven is a new illegal bar in Sector 7. They host punk shows for the community. Rumor has it that AVALANCHE squats the bar as their hideout…"

Malle trailed off.

No one in the public or the punk scene actually knew who was in AVALANCHE, as the group was sworn to secrecy due to their extreme destruction on ShinRa property.

"GET DOWN!" A scream suddenly echoed in the crowd.

Several teargas canisters skipped onto the pavement, and the joyful energy of the crowd suddenly turned into mass panic and hysteria.

Malle grabbed Elaine and pushed past the crowd into the narrow city streets, Elaine coughed as the sharp metallic and acrid gas cut her lungs and eyes.

"Fuck, I got gassed! It fucking burns!"

ShinRa military police we're now running through the crowd, tackling people and dragging them into huge vehicles.

"Just keep running! They arresting everyone now!"

Malle screamed and fought his way through, cutting down alleyways and one-way streets, while the thunderous explosions of teargas and rubber bullets erupted right behind them and the pulsating crowd running for cover. Elaine wasn't very familiar with Sector 5 that well, and the teargas had taken its toll.

"I can't run anymore, I need to rest, my eyes are burning!"

Malle pushed Elaine down into a dark corridor free from the eyes of police and removed his black sweatshirt. "Here, wash your eyes with this. It's antacid and water." Malle said as he handed her a plastic bottle of white liquid.

Elaine splashed the liquid on her face and felt the burning in her lungs subside.

Malle removed his bandana.

He had a shaved head, a nose piercing, and she could make  
out what appeared to be a tattoo on his chest that said NO FUTURE in capitol letters.  
Elaine also noticed he had bright green eyes, and a very nice, fit body.

"Are your friends okay?" Elaine asked as she settled on a pile of garbage, catching her breath.

"I don't know."Malle said shaking his head.

"I could tell they we're targeting Occupy Midgar organizers in the crowd."

"Whose they?" Elaine asked.

"ShinRa military police." Malle answered. "They probably are slowly starting to find out who does the most work in the movement."

Elaine paused for a minute to wipe her face with her black, torn, patched up shirt.

"Do you think there are informants in the scene?" she asked quietly.

Malle pensively stared into empty space for a few seconds, and turned to Elaine.

"I have to go find out who got arrested and who didn't.

I will be at the show at 7th Heaven tonight if you want to hang out more.

Sorry about our chaotic introduction."

Malle spoke as he covered his face with his bandana and hood.

"No problem. Good talking to you. Thanks for saving my ass."

Elaine thanked Malle as he ran back out into the filthy streets, disappearing into the black buldings of the oppressed city.

* * *

Elaine wrapped her scarf and jacket around her as she took a shortcut to Sector 7 to avoid the Military Police. Security between the sectors would be extra difficult now because of the protest.

Fortunately, for the city's younger citizens, shortcuts and secret passage- ways we're abundant.

Elaine had a bad cough, not just from the teargas she had been exposed too, but also the thick layer of pollution that saturated the slums.

Most slum dwellers nicknamed it "the Slum hack," because so many people born in the Midgar slums suffered from it.

Elaine gazed at the colorful graffiti and tagging along the buildings as she made her way through the streets.

"So many AVALANCHE tags these days," She wondered.

"Oh great, druggies…"

Elaine was now coming up to the part of Sector 6 where drug dealers constantly littered the streets, peddling their weird experimental drugs, usually smuggled from ShinRa's top secret labs.

"Chiva, Chiva." One tall man in a torn brown jacket said to her as she passed him. "NO, not today." Elaine snapped, trying to ignore him.

"God I wish there was another way to Sector 7 sometimes. I hate dealing with these guys."

Another shady looking individual stopped right in front of her, extremely pale, shaking, and eyes glowing a color of bright hazel.

"Mako. I got Mako here…." Whispering somewhat aggressively.

What?! Mako?! Fuck that!" She yelled at the stranger, hurrying along.

"Anyone who has Mako is an undercover cop or insane! I'm really just trying to get to a show! Please leave me alone!"

Elaine hurried up the street with her head down.

As she walked up the street near the theater, another street peddler caught her attention, but this person was different.

It was a thin, curvy, girl in a pink dress, long brunette hair and a basket of flowers.

"Flowers." The woman announced softly. "Only One Gil."

Elaine looked up at the woman from her hood.

"Wow, how refreshing. She only wants to sell me flowers…." Elaine thought to herself.

The woman caught Elaine's gaze and looked into her eyes.

"Flowers, miss? I like your outfit."

The flower girl asked Elaine.

"No thanks, sorry." Elaine muttered and continued on.

"Geez, I should have at least bought one…"

* * *

Elaine walked up to the steps of 7th Heaven.

There we're punks everywhere!

Elaine was super excited to see so many people.

Rows of kids sat on the steps drinking bottles of beer.

"Yeah there's booze inside, but they charge too much for it here."

Remarked one guy with liberty spikes and a studded up jacket.

"Well all the money from the bar goes straight to keeping the place going. We should support!"

His friend said, a girl with blonde and black hair.

A drunk guy with red, spiky hair wandered over to the huge crowd of punks and started yelling.

"Hey ya damn kids, this is my friend's bar HIC! Shows some respect HIC! I've known her since we HIC we're all kids and shit in Nibelheim HIC!"

The drunk red haired guy stumbled on his own feet and fell face first in the dirt, an event that got a huge roar of laughter from the crowd of punks.

"Damn it Johnny, Go home! You are too drunk!"

A stranger in the crowd yelled at the drunken man.

Elaine made her way up the steps into the venue, as she proceeded up the steps, a few familiar faces greeted her,

"Hi Elaine, how's it going!" "

What's up Elaine! Glad you didn't get arrested!"

"Good to see you kid!"

Elaine stopped as she looked up at Malle who obstructed her way.

"Malle! Glad you're here! I was worried!"

Elaine gave him a friendly hug.

"You should check this place out, they got a ton of zines in here." Malle said as he turned around into the venue.

While Elaine followed Malle, two tall punk guys in lather jackets and colored mohawks drunkenly and joyfully screamed, "Midgar Drunk Punks for life!" as they both took a swig of their respective beers.

Inside 7th Heaven a thick cloud of cigarette smoke and alcohol smell greeted Elaine. The place was packed wall-to-wall with punks of every size, shape, age, and color.

Near the left side of the wall, were a pinball machine and a huge bookshelf with anti-ShinRa zines hanging off of it.

Towards the back of the place was a stage filled up with amps, guitars, drums, and keyboards.

On the right hand side of the stage was a bar, with a tall, big chested woman with a white t-shirt and long dark brown hair working behind it.

"C'mon Tifa! Give me a free drink!"

A young punk woman with a dread hawk pleaded with the bartender.

"Nope, sorry Elicia, I gave you two free drinks already! My place needs to make money."

The bartender sternly expressed.

"Shit, you're such a capitalist!"

Elicia mumbled as she walked away from the bar towards the stage.

The bartender, Tifa, put her hand on her head and said sorrowfully,

"I can't believe these kids sometimes. They act like I'm worse then ShinRa or something. I just want to keep this place open for them!"

"So any bands played yet?" Elaine asked Malle.

"Lifestream Rejects played already, but they we're a little too hippy for me. Think Midgar Street Rats are up next."

Malle said as he opened his beer bottle.

"I'm gonna check out the zines in the meantime."

Elaine said as she wandered to the bookshelf.

"Ohhh I've been looking for this one…" She spoke as she picked up a zine entitled "A Study of SOLDIER and the sexual control of Women."

The zine mostly explained how ShinRa labs modeled their top male SOLDIER operatives to be beautiful, and sexually attractive to women in order to control the general female population and keep them brainwashed.

The zine went further to describe Sephiroth, the most famous and brutal SOLDIER member in the world, and the reports of women who saw him became completely hypnotized by his appearance.

Another zine Elaine picked up and flipped through was about ShinRa labs and the experiments they do on unwilling test subjects, and forced Mako injection on all members of the military.

Various other zines talked about squatting abandoned houses in Midgar legally, and the struggle of Cosmo Canyon, the only town in the world living off the grid and free from ShinRa's control.

"Wow, Cosmo Canyon. I would love to go there and help out someday."

Elaine thought to herself while she daydreamed of living in an autonomous zone.

Elaine grabbed her stack of zines and approached Tifa, the bartender.

"How much for all of these?"

* * *

The show was three bands in.

Elaine had drank enough beers to make herself feel more confortable with the huge crowd of moshing punks, the thick cigarette smoke, and the sweaty bodies crashing everywhere.

Most of the bands we're okay but she was most interested in seeing World of No Tomorrow.

They we're a veteran punk band of Midgar, and had a female lead singer.

As the band did sound check with their instruments, more and more people gathered towards the front of the stage.  
Elaine quickly pushed her way through to the front.  
She knew most of the words to all their songs.

Once World of No Tomorrow started their set, the lead singer grabbed the mic and made a loud, commanding announcement.

"This song goes out to all the people arrested at the protest today!  
Fuck ShinRa!"

The band erupted with their song "Self Destruct" and the crowd simultaneously erupted into moshing and slam dancing.  
Elaine loved that song the most, and started loudly singing along with the lead singer and the crowd.

"Look at this world man has created, people dependent on greed and hatred!"

A punk much bigger then Elaine dived off the stage and almost knocked her to the ground.

"Wars between religion, Wars between races, still fighting battles their ancestors started!"

Elaine braced herself as the crowd became a unified, living, breathing, animal.

"You destroy, you exploit, we condone, we self-destruct!"

Elaine grabbed ahold of Malle, who was also moshing furiously, and circle pitted with him in the crowd.

"Blood money pours from every wound, Wars for profit selling weapons of doom!"

The lead singer screamed into the microphone like a battle cry.

"Destroying ourselves, destroying our land, taking the future from our children's hands!"

* * *

Elaine sat on the steps of 7th Heaven catching her breath, mascara running down her face from all the sweat and beer poured on her.

The show was pretty much over, but there we're still people hanging out.  
Drunk or on drugs, stumbling around, fighting, yelling, crying, or going home with someone for the night.

"What a great fucking show!" Elaine said as she drank the rest of her beer.

Malle sat next to her, a little bit more closely then usual.

"Elaine, let me show you something."

Malle took off the glove on his right hand.

"Oh, sweet tattoo. I only saw the tattoo on your chest."

Elaine said as she looked at the back of his right hand.

A tattoo of the number "8" was inked into his hand with thick black coloring.

"I don't really show a lot of people this tattoo.  
It scares me."

Malle said as he closely studied it.

"Scares you? What do you mean? Why did you get it then?"

Elaine asked.

"I didn't get it!"  
Malle explained, "I've just always had it,  
ever since I was little.  
I don't know how or why I got this number tattooed on my hand."

Elaine looked up at Malle still confused.

"What about your parents? Did they ever tell you why?"

"No…I don't have any parents." Malle said sadly.

"I was raised in an orphanage, so I don't know who my parents are."

"Shit Malle that is really sad." Elaine put her hand on Malle's back to comfort him.

Malle started trailing off and ranting with a twinge of paranoia in his voice.

"I've heard rumors of ShinRa scientists doing some weird experiment on people around here five years ago. I've only heard of another guy with an unexplained tattoo on his hand, and he is a babbling basket case! What if him and me we're experimented on? What if something horrible is going to happen to me someday? What if ShinRa picks me up and takes me away and no one will ever see me again? I can't fucking handle thinking about it sometimes! When I look at this tattoo for too long I feel something talking to me in the back of my head…."

Elaine put her arms around Malle.

"It's okay Malle, I'm sure it's not that big of a deal.

Even if ShinRa did weird experiments on you, you are here now, involved with the revolution."

Elaine smiled at him, and Malle looked at her deeply with his green eyes.

"Elaine..." Malle started, "I know we just met…but…I think I really like you."

Elaine moved her face closer to Malle's to kiss him.

All of a sudden, an angry roar came from the direction of the bar.

"You damn kids get outta here! People gotta go to sleep and shit!"

Elaine jumped up and grabbed ahold of Malle.

"C'mon! You can come back to my place! It's not too far from here!"

Malle and Elaine laughed as they held each other up, walking through the night, two disenfranchised youth of Midgar with no future.

* * *

The End.


End file.
